Yahya Al-e Es’hagh made the remarks on Monday in a meeting of the Policy-Making Council of the Development of Economic Cooperation between Iran and Iraq, which was held at the venue of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA).
“The fact is that economic diplomacy plays a pivotal role in all fields of governance and effective steps must be taken in this regard in order to strengthen the economic diplomacy in the country in international arenas," he added.
Stating that the relations between the two countries of Iran and Iraq are ‘strategic’, Al-e Es’hagh said that the two countries’ economy, security, threats and opportunities are completely interconnected to each other so that all-out development of Iran and Iraq relations has been focused on the economic issues.
Given the high capacities that existed between Iran and Iraq, it is predicted that trade value exchange between the two countries will hit $10 billion before the termination of the current Iranian calendar year (to end March 20, 2023), he noted.
Elsewhere in his remarks, he pointed to Iran’s trade with Iraq’s Kurdistan region (KRG) and stated that Iran’s economic ties with neighboring Iraq’s Kurdistan region have been improved, so that Iran and Kurdistan region enjoy the high capability and capacity to broaden their bilateral trade.
The Secretary-General of Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce Sanjabi Shirazi, for his part, pointed to the targeting $20 billion in trade between Iran and Iraq and put the value of trade exchange between Iran and Iraq last year (ended March 20, 2022) at about $9 billion, expandable to $10 billion in the current year.
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